The demand for filtered or purified drinking water is abundant, especially, but not limited to, in circumstances involving outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, or backpacking, or even at home, in the office, or in other day-to-day circumstances or environments. Particularly, water that may come from a tap source, such as a municipal water supply or water well, may contain some impurities such as, but not limited to chlorine, sediments, as well as metals (e.g., lead and copper). It is often desired to have these impurities removed prior to consuming the water.
With regard to tap water, municipal water, and/or well water, some products exist that include large containers or pitchers that can be used to supposedly filter the water. For example, a filter may be embedded or placed into the pitcher, allowing the tap water or other water to pass through the filter and into a retention portion of the pitcher. One problem, however, is that the water takes a significant amount of time to pass through the filter before it can be consumed. Accordingly, the water is not able to be filtered on demand or in real-time in that it must slowly pass through the filter and into the retention portion of the pitcher before it can be subsequently poured into a glass or other container for consumption.
Some other water filters, typically for use outdoors, may require the fluid to be filtered through a pump or other like mechanism. This is often time-consuming and in some cases, quite laborious. For example, water may first be obtained from a water source (e.g., a stream or lake) in a bucket or pan. Using a filter pump, the user may pump water from the bucket or pan, through the filtering mechanism, and into a bottle or other like container for subsequent consumption. Again, this process is often time consuming, laborious, and requires multiple containers and in some cases, multiple people.
Other filtering or purification systems may include chemical disinfectants, such as iodine-based or chlorine-base pills or tablets. These tablets can be dropped into a container of fluid, such as water, for purification purposes. However, methods involving chemical disinfectants such as iodine or chlorine tablets are extremely time consuming, and can take approximately 30 minutes or more to complete. In certain environments and circumstances, such as camping or hiking, this can be quite an inefficient use of time and, in many cases, can be inconvenient or worse, dangerous, especially in the event drinking water is needed on-demand or immediately.
There is thus a need in the art for a device that can be used to quickly obtain filtered and/or purified water and other fluids, for example, on-demand. Accordingly, the proposed invention disclosed herein is directed to a filtered drinking straw that includes one end (e.g., a bottom or first end) that can be placed in the water or other fluid, a filter medium disposed within the straw for receiving and filtering the fluid, and a second or top end where a user can place his or her mouth for receiving and drinking the filtered water or fluid, on-demand.
In this manner, the proposed filtered drinking straw can be used to obtain filtered water directly from the source, for example, directly from a river, stream or lake. Other applications may include everyday activities by filtering tap water from a faucet for from a glass or cup. Thus, a user may obtain tap (or other) water from a faucet, for example, by pouring tap water into a glass. The user can filter the tap water, on-demand, as the user pulls or suctions the tap water through the straw and directly into his or her mouth for consumption.